I have been a patient of Akiko for over 1 year. I have received at lease one treatment every 2 weeks to one month from her for general health and also problems of overwork, tiredness and insomnia which are a common factor in living as a English teacher here in Japan.

The first time I had a treatment with her I was very very tired. I had had a quick landing in Narita
airport, I hadn't slept very well and I was just getting into my new life in Japan. I felt very depressed then, like the whole world was changing and I had no energy to get my life in order. I went to the
clinic and was greeted by Akiko. She welcomed me and almost instinctively it seemed knew how tired I was and how long my journey had been just by looking at me. I didn't understand how she could know me so
well. Later she explained that she was diagnosing my condition from everything about me from the moment I walked in! I lay down on the couch and she asked me very gently about my health and how she could help. She then pressed my abdomen and felt the pulses on my wrists. This was another method of diagnosis she explained.

After that she told me she would put some needles in my abdomen. I was use to acupuncture but I knew she was really very good as she put in about 7 or 8 needles none of which were painful, I didn't feel anything!, but relaxed and warm. I fell asleep for about 5 minuits. She came in next and did moxibustion using cones of moxa on the points she had needled. This felt really good and warm and I began to
feel revived although very tired still. She was very confident and efficient but at the same time relaxed
and grounded and calm and she had that effect on me. She then did some other points which she said were to help my overall health. Then she asked me to turn over and she did massage on my back. It was truly the best massage I had ever had. It was the exact point between pain and pleasure which I realised was just helping my body to adjust itself without significant force but just gently pushing it.

My muscles in my neck and shoulders relaxed and the outsides of my legs were really tight and she went
down these areas with a lot of care, instinctively knowing which places would be painful and treating
them, but with due respect. I felt that ; very respected by her during her treatment, not at all judged for doing something stupid with my energy or eating the wrong food on the plane or just not taking
time out to sleep well enough, she just accepted me point blank and that felt so good. After the massage
she put needles down my back and left me for a while. Two of the needles had some moxa on them which warmed and penetrated my lower back and felt so good. After that she finished with cone moxa on my shoulders.

I got up feeling like a different person. I felt relaxed but alive and with energy and things did not seem so impossible. That night I slept better than I had done for ages and since then I have seen her for
treatment many times when my schedule allows so I can keep going and build my strength. I notice too that each time I felt that I was changed somehow, that I knew now what it meant to feel "health",
if one can do such a thing. Being in that state after treatment was like going back to the place I would
like to be all the time in my body state but which is so hard to keep with the pace of life today. Also I
found I was making more changes in my life and now I do Qi-gong and taichi, I try to watch what I eat and as she explained it would be good for me to eat more vegetables and less meat with my particular
constitution although for others this could be opposite. This acceptance of many different ways of
eating too was good and showed me that she was really open to ideas rather than just one. I have had many treatments of acupuncture from numerous practitioners all over the world some who are supposedly the best in Europe and theUK, however Akiko's love and kindness and natural ability to be a excellent
confident and modest practitioner and person means that she out classes these people onehundred fold in
her ability to treat and the feeling that she can create with her healing hands in me. I continue to see
her and she influences me more and more to help myself rather than rely on forms of medicine that mean you are continually at the hands of a suppliers rather than focusing on your own body and trying to help
yourself, as she says; find your own "true health". I am so happy to have met Akiko and I hope to be a patient of hers for many more years to come.